Metroid II: Return of Samus

Metroid II: Return of Samus is a platform adventure game with a science fiction theme developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in November 1991 as the second game in the Metroid series. You again play the bounty hunter Samus Aran who is now trying to wipe out the last of the remaining metroids, which have begun to mutate and spread.

Since I didn't have a Game Boy growing up, I never played Metroid II when it was popular, and I didn't even see it beyond a TV commercial until the late 1990s when a friend let me play his nearly completed save game. I didn't want to ruin the game, so I only played for a few seconds, but noticed the oddity of ducking, the tiny display window, and the interesting spider ball. It wasn't until the 2000s that I decided to play it. I enjoyed it a lot and beat it.

This is the first Metroid game to feature Samus wearing a unique Varia suit. Although the Varia exists in the first game, all it does is change your suit colors, it doesn't alter the appearance. In this game, when Samus obtains the Varia, her suit becomes more armored. In particular, the armor on her shoulders in increased. In the game, it looks pretty cool, but on the box art, the bulbous shoulders look pretty silly. Samus would already have poor peripheral vision because of her helmet, those giant balls on her shoulders would probably prevent her from even being able to turn her head! It's disappointing to me that her character designers kept that impractical look throughout the rest of the series.